Tigers pounce on PCA

DOVER — After one of the worst seasons in program history in 2012, the Farmington High School team figures it has something to prove this year.

The Division III Tigers are certainly headed in the right direction at the moment. Saturday they roared past Division IV Portsmouth Christian, 11-1, in five innings, to improve to 2-1 — matching the amount of wins by last year’s team, which went 2-14.

“We need to start beating teams,” said Farmington coach Jim LaClair. “We took Portsmouth Christian seriously. We wanted to win. We weren’t using subs. We came with our full starting lineup.”

Winning pitcher Kevin Radcliffe went three shutout innings to collect his second win and sophomore Anthony Bennett tossed the final two frames.

“We were swinging the bats and we came out with good defense in the field,” said Radcliffe, who went 1 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI. “I felt pretty good and confident.”

PCA dropped to 0-2. The Eagles are coming off an 18-1 season, but lost three all-state players, including their two best pitchers.

They used five pitchers in five innings on Saturday.

“We’re inexperienced,” said PCA coach Jeff LeDuc. “We’ve got a lot of new kids this year. This is only our second game. I think they’re playing and they’re learning. I like what I see.”

Farmington scored at least one run in every inning, scoring two in the first, all it would need as it turned out.

Radcliffe drove a one-out double to left-center and then scored on Bennett’s deep double to right.

Bennett made it 2-0 when he scored from second on an error on a ball hit by Jordan Damon.

Radcliffe added a sacrifice fly in the second, and Tyler Olberg (walk) and Tanner Gibbs (single) chipped in with RBIs in the third to make it 5-0.

A four-run fourth inning was highlighted by a two-run base hit by A.J. Valladares. Greg Brannan added an RBI double and Austin Healey (2 for 5, RBI) a run-scoring single.

The Tigers, who also took advantage of 10 PCA walks, added two runs in the fifth on Kevin Poulin’s triple and three errors to push the margin to 10.

“My expectations are high,” LaClair added. “When you look at where we were coming from. This is the same team. This was a loss last year. I’ve got to sit back and put things into perspective. But I expect a lot. They’re more mature, there’s no doubt about that. That shows. We did jump out to an early lead and that’s something these guys have to learn to do.”

Portsmouth Christian scored its only run in the fourth off Bennett after there were two outs. Connor Foley drew the first of three straight walks and later scored on a wild pitch.

Radcliffe cruised through his three-inning stint, although he did surrender a lead-off double to Justin LeDuc (2 hits) in the first. LeDuc moved to third on a wild pitch, but then tried to score from there on Matt Salloway’s grounder to third base. He was thrown out at the plate by Brannan, the Tiger third baseman. Radcliffe also gave up an infield hit to Ryan Lemire in the third.

Farmington out hit the Eagles, 10 to 3.

“I think we let up a little bit hitting-wise mentally,” LaClair added. “The defense, I thought, played pretty well. I was fairly happy with that and we were able to get some other people in. ... I think we should have scored more runs early. Once we got a few runs, we let up a little bit. I thought we were a little passive. We weren’t aggressive at the plate.”